Sony issues global li-ion battery recall — Sony has finally bitten the bullet and issued a worldwide recall of all Sony-manufactured lithium-ion batteries used in notebook computers. Earlier in the day, Lenovo/IBM joined the ranks of Dell, Apple, and Toshiba in issuing a recall for all Sony batteries that ship with their notebooks.

Skype's Mobility Problem — Skype for Mobile wants to get on your cell phone, but technical hurdles and tough competitors may stand in the way — Concern that Skype's efforts to move into mobile calling may be in jeopardy surfaced on Sept. 28. That's when a Finnish newspaper published …

Facebook is open — Facebook is open. I've already received friend requests from companies selling their wares by creating a Profile. I am also faced with more contexts that i can deal with. (Note: i'm not accepting friendships from folks that i know in the blogosphere until i figure …

Mark Cuban: Only a 'moron' would buy YouTube — Billionaire investor and dot-com veteran Mark Cuban had harsh words Thursday for YouTube, the online site that lets people share video clips, saying only a "moron" would purchase the wildly popular start-up. — Cuban, co-founder of HDNet …

Why The New .Mac Webmail Is Important — Earlier this week Apple announced that a new version of webmail for Mac users is "coming soon." There was a bit of chatter about this around the blogosphere, with most people concluding that this fresh coat of paint on the inferior .mac product is a bit of a yawn.

Map Quest … SLOUCHED IN AN undecorated cubicle in Lebanon, New Hampshire, sleeves rolled up on his button-down shirt, David Williams is looking for one-way streets. It's frustrating work. Williams stares at his email inbox: a solid wall of news alerts from Yahoo and Google.

New Power Suit Amplifies Human Strength — NEW YORK—Engineers in Japan are perfecting a wearable power suit that amplifies human strength to help lift hospital patients or heavy objects. — Driven by portable batteries, micro air pumps and small body sensors that pick up even the slightest muscle twitch …

A view from (under) the long tail — I lead a double life. It gives me something in common with spies, weekend cross-dressers and fugitives from the law, but in my case the reality is much more boring. As an academic, I spend much of my time thinking and writing about the internet economy …

The "Web 2.0 'exit strategy'" badges — About a month and a half from now there will be in San Francisco the third conference dedicated to Web 2.0, a favorable location for a discussion, in pragmatic words, about the existence of not of a "Bubble 2.0". — With the definitive affirmation of blogs …

Meet the second generation of UMPCs, shoulda been 1st — When the UMPC platform was launched at Intel's 2005 IDF we were teased with a $500 or less device on the WWAN running on ultra-low powered chips capable of either 8-hours off battery or putting Vista to sleep for up to a week.

Fresher query stats — Query stats in webmaster tools provide information about the search queries that most often return your site in the results. You can view this information by a variety of search types (such as web search, mobile search, or image search) and countries.

Yahoo teams up with HP on search engine — SAN FRANCISCO - Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) said Thursday it has struck a deal with Hewlett-Packard Co. to plant its Internet search engine on millions of computers, the latest volley in a high-stakes battle with Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

IE7 still handles feeds better than Firefox 2.0 — I said it before and I'll say it again: Internet Explorer 7 handles RSS feeds better than Firefox 2.0. — While Firefox 2 RC1 handles RSS feeds very nicely (and has since the beta), IE7 still has advanced feed handling features that Firefox lacks.

Something looks... different. — As of today, Google Reader has a new look — and even more important, a lot of new features that we think you'll like. We've listened to your feedback, done usability research, and examined all the ways that people consume content on the web, from feed readers to email clients.